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Two Creston businesses make cut in Dream Big contest
Creston School Board passes new report card system for junior-K through fifth-grade ■
By KYLE WILSON
CNA assistant managing editor kwilson@crestonnews.com
By BAILEY POOLMAN
CNA staff reporter bpoolman@crestonnews.com
No more As and Bs for junior-kindergarten through fifth-grade math. Instead, Creston Community School District is implementing a new grading system for quarterly report cards based on student development. “We were going down the road of standards-based reporting, where we report out the student’s progress in relationship to the standards in Iowa Core instead of just a letter grade,” said Callie Anderson, Creston pre-kindergarten to Anderson second-grade principal. The system, which was being developed since 2012, will be used for the 2013-14 school year only in math as a test run before the board makes the decision to use the system for the entire school district. “It’s easy to communicate to parents because it’s an Iowa Core standard that says, ‘Can your child add and subtract?’ If they can add, that’s fantastic. If they have trouble subtracting, then you can put it in terms of developing,” said Pat Rabbitt, Creston fifth-grade teacher. Rubrics of the new math grading system are available on Creston Community School District’s website, and are organized by grade level. New system Math’s new grading system looks at a student’s educational development, and whether or not the student is secure in learning certain areas of math. “We’re not changing the en-
CNA file photo
A Creston Elementary School student plays a game and practices math skills at the same time during the school’s math night April 11.
tire report card,” Anderson said. “We are just adding this section in math. ... We wanted to start with just one content area and fine-tune it before we move on to other areas.” The grading scale runs from “needs continuous support” to “secure,” and there is a key on the report card for parents to know what each letter or mark means. “That’s the difficult piece,” said Brad Baker, Creston Middle School principal. “The public and parents will have difficulty. They’re automatically going to want to associate Baker something to an A, B, C or D. We’re trying to get away from that to really show where the student’s at.” On the card, there are certain areas a student should be fluent in, and those areas will each have a grade after them. For example, “count to 120, starting at any number less than 12” and “tell and write time in
hours and half-hours” are two standards a first-grade student has to be secure in. “They (parents) are going to have a hard time making that jump,” Anderson said. “That’s why we started with one area. We need to fine-tune it. We need to get them used to the process.” Old system The old system is a familiar one. It focuses on a percentage grade in each subject, and for certain percentage markers, the student receives a letter grade. For example, 93 to 100 percent is equivalent to an A and 83 to 92 percent is equivalent to a B. Grades could also be weighted, so one part of classwork might make up more of the final grade than another. For example, daily homework might be 45 percent of the final grade, quizzes might be 25 percent and tests might be 30 percent. The grades in the percentagebased grading are not broken up to see where students struggle or succeed. In other school board news: • The school board passed a motion to sell the former administration building, located at
Grading systems New kindergarten to fifthgrade math grading scale: / = Not yet assessed S = Secure D = Developing B = Beginning N = Needs continuous support General kindergarten to fifthgrade grading scale A = 100-93 percent B = 92-83 percent C = 82 to 73 percent N = Needs improvement X = Area of concern
619 N. Maple St., at auction, and went into closed session to discuss a minimum price. • Key performance targets for the superintendent position were discussed, and board members passed goals that were high priorities to them. • The board made school climate, minimum growth areas and technology in the schools top priorities for the 2013-14 school year, and discussed the district’s mission statement after a district survey was returned to administrators with comments on district goals.
The top five businesses in the Dream Big, Grow Here grant competition were announced this morning. They include: Afton Fitness Center, Podium Ink of Mount Ayr, Upper Crust Culinary Creations of Creston, Sew and Sew of Lamoni and SheNae’s Rescued and Renewed of Creston. The top vote-getter was Afton Fitness Center with 2,811 votes. “It was a very close race,” said Wayne Pantini, Union County Development Association (UCDA) executive director. “During the last half hour of the voting period, the businesses in fourth, fifth and sixth kept switching back and fourth. Pantini But, She-Nae’s ended up edging out Play Posse (of Mount Ayr) by one vote. “This competition really has shown the power of social media and the amount of exposure businesses can get with an online presence.” These top five businesses will now compete in a regional pitchoff event — slated Nov. 12 at Lakeside Casino — for a chance at winning $5,000 toward their dream. “The pitchoff will have five judges,” Pantini said. “The judges will have backgrounds in marketing and finance. Each business will have five minutes to pitch their idea and the panel will judge them on what they will use the money for, how that business idea will have a regional impact and proven sustainability of the idea.” The pitchoff event is not open to the public. The winner of the regional contest will then advance to a state competition slated for spring 2014 where winners will have a chance to win an additional $10,000. Please see DREAM, Page 2
Support:
Sophomore Molly Schimp celebrates a teammate’s point during the first set Tuesday night at Southwestern Community College. Fans dressed in pink to raise awareness for breast cancer. For coverage on the game, see sports page 1S.
CNA photo by JAKE WADDINGHAM
CNA photo by KYLE WILSON
Frosty morning:
Lawrence Wantland of Creston scrapes ice off the front windshield of his daughter’s Oldsmobile this morning on North Chestnut Street. Wantland wasn’t the only Crestonian using an ice scraper this morning as the temperature dropped into the 20s overnight. Cool temperatures continue today with a high temperature of 45 degrees. The low tonight is expected to again be below freezing. Serving Southwest Iowa since 1879 Price 75¢
If you do not receive your CNA by 5 p.m. call 641-782-2141, ext. 221. Papers will be redelivered in Creston until 6:30 p.m. Phones will be answered until 7 p.m.
Volume 130 No. 95 Copyright 2013
Contact us 2013
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Thursday weather High 47 Low 25 Full weather report, 3A